Sunday was the last night of Burger Record’s week long rock fest at the Observatory to celebrate 5 years of historic shows with Orange County’s most important venue, and in perfectly copacetic fashion, the week went out with a bang.

The night opened up on the main stage in the afternoon by Kim & The Created, a noisy Cramps-meets-Vice Squad punk band punctuated by the possessed dance moves of Kim House.

Jigsaw Seen, Vajj, and Walter played the Constellation Room before aggressive pop punk trio Melted took the stage and played one of the highlight sets of the night. After an extended period of guitar amp problems, they finally ripped into their set like a bag of Garden Salsa Sunchips, making the wait well worthwhile. “It smells like weed in here”, the bassist aptly mentioned, as both stage rooms were full of pot smoke through the entire festival. “That was our last song…this is our next song”, the guitarist joked before making their way through the second half of their set.

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The guitarist and drummer seemed to be in a manic battle of frenetic energy through the course of their songs, with matching unrestrained bleached hair, a competition which, at one point caused the guitarist to accidentally step on his tuner pedal causing a lapse in his sound for the better part of a chorus before he realized and corrected his mistake.

Too Short

Natalie Somekh

Meanwhile on the main stage, Cat Signs were playing to a different vibe, keeping the crowd feeling laid back with their mellow kind of garage rock tunes like “Under the Sun,” and “Mirrored You.” Half of the members donned sunglasses, presumably covering what one could only imagine were fairly red eyes. During their last song the bassists strap came undone and he was relegated to sitting against his amp, which actually seemed somewhat more fitting.

The diversity continued as the main stage was then abdicated to Meatbodies, a fuzz fueled high energy group with Beatles-esque harmonies paired with harmonizing guitar melodies and very high-waisted pants.

Later on The Orwells graced the stage with their dirty brand of rock ‘n’ roll playing a high-octane barrage of catchy tunes, including their currently recognizable single, ‘Who Needs You.”

Edith Frances of Crystal Castles

Natalie Somekh

The night was closed out by the electronic stylings of Crystal Castles with new vocalist Edith Frances followed by rapper Too $hort, officially giving the festival the distinction as being one of the most diverse concerts we’ve witnessed in a very long time; effectively bringing together lo-fi garage, punk rock, indie, hip-hop and dance music into a consolidated scene, something Burger Records has been doing for years now.

If you missed the Burger Records/Observatory 5 year anniversary festival, you’ll still have a chance to catch Burgerama 5 this Summer. Keep an eye out for tickets at http://www.observatoryoc.com